News & Articles
REMEMBERING FRANCIS
I admit it; I find transitions hard. My parents told me that I didn’t do well when our family moved from the Chicago area to Springfield, Illinois, when I was five years old. I don’t remember that, but I remember being disoriented when we moved five years later to northern Illinois. Perhaps that partially explains…
REPLAYING AN OLD DEBT
Memory is a strange human facility. Why do we vividly remember certain experiences in the past but not others? Of course, traumatic moments are memorable because they are accompanied by strong emotions. 9/11 as well as John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassinations can’t help but be remembered. What I find surprising is…
O Canada
Donald Trump could have avoided a lot of frustration and embarrassment if he had asked me about Canadians. In the early to mid-seventies, while pursuing doctoral studies in Scotland, I knew a number of Canadians who were also studying there. In fact, my wife and I shared living accommodations with one Canadian couple, and I…
THE LIVES WE LIVE
As I have aged, my view of obituaries has changed. When I was younger, I usually ignored obituaries. Many young people find death a morbid preoccupation unless circumstances force them to pay attention. Given that most obituaries pertain to older people, perhaps ignoring death when a person is young makes a kind of sense. I…
CURIOSITY IS A TWO-WAY STREET
Last week while channel-surfing, I stumbled upon a short documentary about the Amish. Many people would likely ignore the program, but I have always been curious about all things religious. This wasn’t the first program I’ve watched about the Amish, but this one’s title, “The Amish Dilemma,” grabbed my attention. A distinctive element of this…
LEARNING FROM THE ROMANS
Roman generals and emperors offer important lessons about the dangers of authoritarian rule. In an attempt to always appear strong, or even to be a god, Roman rulers surrounded themselves with weak advisors and servants. These fawning flatterers are best called sycophants or toadies. To help my students understand what these words mean, I encouraged…